Wagon Jumpers - February 28 - March 6, 2010 (closed)

(I keep the waiting list capped at 4 people as it can be a 16 week wait with that length. We currently have 4 people on the waiting if you are interested in the waiting please read below and contact supersized with any questions.)

Welcome to the Wagon Jumpers weekly thread. We are a group of CC members who have identified that one of our main challenges with achieving our weight loss, maintenance or general health goals is consistency.

This thread is designed to encourage long term commitment to our goals by publicly declaring them and asking the other members of this thread to hold us accountable. The primary focus of wagon jumpers is not how much weight you have lost, or need to loose, but what you need to do on a daily basis to meet your long term goals.

There are two rules for Wagon Jumpers:

1. All members must post once per week between Sunday and Friday.

2. All members must check the thread for members who have not posted by Saturday (a short list is posted on Thursday) or are on the MIA list on Sunday and send them a polite and positive message to stay involved in the group and on track with their goals.

If you would like to be a member of this thread please see the guidelines below and send me a PM if you are still interested (there may be a waiting list).

Medium Size Group = Some Time Commitment

The original idea of Wagon Jumpers was to create a close community where participants could get to know each other and hopefully form virtual-life and perhaps even physical-life bonds to create a support network as they attempted long term weight loss.

We quickly discovered that this was impossible with an 'always open' group as there were too many people coming and going. For this reason the group is finding its optimum level is between 20 and 25 participants.

A medium sized group means that we have an active thread that produces between 30 - 45 posts per week. Members do not need to read / respond to every post every week. I do notice that those who respond regularly do tend to keep their goals top of mind, and have a better chance to achieve them. I estimate the average time spent by an active member on Wagon Jumpers to be between 1-2 hours per week.

If you are looking for an always open group on CC there are several that operate by different weight criteria, similar motivational patterns etc... There are also many small groups that cap their numbers between 4-10 people to keep the group more intimate, and easier for members to keep up with.

Interested in Joining?

General Guidelines for Joining

1. Are you a wagon jumper?

Do you know how to loose weight, you often have success but then you find yourself loosing interest in your plan, or sabotaging your plan. It's not the "how" to loose weight that is the problem, it's the "how" to stay motivated.

2. Do you have a long way to go?

This group is designed so that members can get to know each other and support each other. Ideally you are planning to be a CC member and part of this forum for at least 6 months or more to achieve your goals and hopefully stay in motivation for a further 6 months or more.

Yes. This is, a long term plan.

3. Do you have the time?

This is a medium sized group, the thread does move fairly quickly each week. If you do not have regular internet access this is likely not the group for you.

Nannygabber - NEW: I will be exercising a minimum of 2 hours per week, and I will MAINTENANCE eat an average weekly calorie intake of 1700 calories per day, each for a minimum of 11 out of 12 weeks.

Laura42 - NEW: Driking 1.25 liters of water daily for 5 of 7 days each week and MAINTENANCE lifting weight three times per week for 10 of 12 weeks.

Kyashiis - NEW: have exercised a minimum of 120 minutes each week and MAINTENANCE will be drinking a minimum of 1 liter of water per day for five of seven days each week.

BigBitty - NEW: going to the gym 2x per week and MAINTENANCE: drinking 2.5L of water daily.

Cawilder - MAINTENANCE: returning to my regular work out which consists of 3 hours of cardio and 1 1/2 hours of strength training and MAINTENANCE: eating an average of 1700 cals/day for 10 of 12 weeks.

Ncurlee - NEW: have completed 150 min of aerobic exercise for 9 of 12 weeks and MAINTENANCE: be acheiving a 500 calorie deficit on 5 of 7 days a week.

12 weeks ago 22 wagon jumpers posted consistency goals to better their health and fitness. This week 18 of those wagon jumpers have made it through those 12 weeks.

Give yourself lots of credit for taking the challenge and for completing it. That in and of itself is success. However we all do aim a bit higher so take a close look at how you chose to measure your goal and let us know how you did.

Bleedtoblue - NEW: Exercising 3x a week for a minimum of 8 of 12 weeks.

Merimeriqcontrary - 110%NEW: Logging all my food for 5 of 7 days a week consistently for 9 of 12 weeks.

Dothehokiepokie - "failed miserably"NEW: Drinking 64oz (2L) of water each day for 5 of 7 days a week consistently for 9 of 12 weeks.

Raven21 - 75%NEW: Exercising for 30 minutes daily for 9 of 12 weeks and MAINTENANCE: drinking at lease 3L of water daily for 9 of 12 weeks.

Supersized - 16.5%NEW: Achieving a minimum of 50% on my weekly nutrition plan for 6 of 12 weeks and MAINTENANCE going to the gym 3x/week for 9 of 12 weeks.

Figurethefat - 50%NEW: Drinking 1 litre of water everyday for 11 of 12 weeks and MAINTENANCE: have completed 1250 exercise minutes per month.

Marcekd - 60%NEW: Drinking at least 2 liters of water a day 5/7 days 10/12 weeks.

Defrog3 - NEW: logging my food 3 days/week and MAINTENANCE have taken Abby to each session in the Mommy and Me yoga class.

Nannygabber - 65%NEW: I will be exercising a minimum of 2 hours per week, and I will MAINTENANCE eat an average weekly calorie intake of 1700 calories per day, each for a minimum of 11 out of 12 weeks.

Laura42 - 62.5%NEW: Driking 1.25 liters of water daily for 5 of 7 days each week and MAINTENANCE lifting weight three times per week for 10 of 12 weeks.

Kyashiis - 62.5%NEW: have exercised a minimum of 120 minutes each week and MAINTENANCE will be drinking a minimum of 1 liter of water per day for five of seven days each week.

BigBitty - 98%NEW: going to the gym 2x per week and MAINTENANCE: drinking 2.5L of water daily.

Cawilder - MAINTENANCE: returning to my regular work out which consists of 3 hours of cardio and 1 1/2 hours of strength training and MAINTENANCE: eating an average of 1700 cals/day for 10 of 12 weeks.

Ncurlee - NEW: have completed 150 min of aerobic exercise for 9 of 12 weeks and MAINTENANCE: be acheiving a 500 calorie deficit on 5 of 7 days a week.

We will be setting new 12-week goals next week. Participation is optional. If you plan to participate please read the rules below. This is the week to ask questions about the goals you are planning to set. Note any goals posted on this week's thread are for discussion only. All goals must be posted on next week's thread.

The Rules

1. Goal Setting is Optional

Goal setting is a motivational part of this group, if it does not work for you as a motivational tool, please feel free to be a cheerleader for those who do set goals.

2. Goals must be posted on the March 7 - 13, 2010 thread

No exceptions. Editing the goals into the main thread is a time commitment for me, so I ask that anyone who wants to participate makes sure that the goals are up on the thread between March 7 - 13, 2010... goals posted earlier or later will not be in the introduction thread, although do feel free to update the group on your progress as we go along.

3. Consistency Based Goals Only

While we all have goals that read: I want to be X lbs or Y size... these are not things that you directly control, they are results of your consistent work to lead a healthier lifestyle. Tell us what you are going to DO to improve your health, are you going to eat better, exercise, drink more water, take walks, run, bike, climb, do yoga, meditate, breath....

4. Measurable Goals

At the end of 12 weeks you will need a quantifiable way to say if you succeeded or not... Saying you are going to "eat better" is a broad objective, and depending on your mood on the 12th week you may be overly optimistic or pessamistic about your success. On the other hand if you say you are going to "eat 1 fruit and 1 vegetable every day" or "eat at an aveage of 2,000 cal/day" or "limit myself to no more than 1 serving of red meat each week" these are goals that you can measure the success of objectively.

5. One New Goal + One Maintenance Goal (only)

This is always the single most difficult rule for members, old members let new members know how helpful this has been in the long run. Wagon jumpers are notorious for making well formed elaborate plans that we inevitably can't or don't follow through on.

You are 100% free to have tens, hundreds or thousands of goals for yourself, however we will prioritize and limit here.

A maintenance goal must be something that you already have well in hand, that you are not currently struggling to incorporate into your daily life. A maintenance goal functions as a benchmark so that as you add a new goal you use that benchmark to see if adding a new goal throws off your already established habits.

New members will be limited to one new goal only. New members are anyone who did not set a goal in the last round.

Returning goal setters: make sure that if you are submitting two goals that you highlight which is the maintenance goal so that I don't come back to you and ask you to pick one new goal only. The most common question I have to ask people is "which is your new goal and which is your maintenance" lets save us both some time!

6. Keep it simple

A goal should be easily able to articulate in one short sentence, if I need a calculator to figure out your goal or if it takes a paragraph to explain it's likely too complicated for you to follow for 12 weeks.

7. Questions?

Now is the time to ask, submit a draft goal, ask members for their advice and experiences on goals.

8. Have Fun!

And that's and order! Remember goal setting is supposed to be affirming and positive, not oppressive and punishing. Keep your goals simple and achievable, it's remarkably hard to keep even simple promises for 12 weeks, but intensely rewarding if you do.

I had two goals this past round. The new goal was to eat 50% according to my nutritional plan as laid out by the nutritionist. I completely fell apart on this goal. In the first 4 weeks I was hovering at 40%, then the dog training kicked in the new job and I stopped measuring that completely.So, I gave myself a zero on that one.

My maintenance goals was to make it to the gym 3 times / week which I did successfully for the first three weeks, then began dog training, and not leaving the dog unattended - which I did not originally realize would be part of the training - completely killed this goal.

Overall I'm giving myself 16.5% and I'm feeling not so good about that. I need to not let my life spiral out of control. Everytime I do this I am prioritizing other things in my life, which may be valid, but if I want my health to be a priority I need to treat it that way.

Goal Setting

The dog training is not going as well as had hoped. We've now been referred to a leading dog behaviouralist (yes I've turned into one of those people) and I have no idea what the new training will involve.

That being said, there is no reason, with all the time I'm spending at home, if I do see my health as a priority that I should not be able to make meal plans and stick to them. So I'm going to keep my NEW goal as:

Eat on nutrition plan 50% of the time for 6 of 12 weeks.

This is a very modest goal it means that half of the 12 weeks I need to only get half of my nutrition plan accomplished. Yes, I'm setting the bar low, but I'm being realistic since I did miss on this one last time.

My MAINTENANCE goal has to keep in mind that I may not make it back to the gym for another month or more. So it needs to account for that. Instead I will focus on my walking which I did let slide a bit but was much more consistent than the gym last round.

I only used two of my slack weeks! Yuhuuu! [one of the weeks was accidental!]

I find that setting the bar lower for myself, helps me exceed it and enjoy that even more! A lot of people wouldn't probably find it daunting to log and not go over a set calorie range. Usually that calorie range frustrates me so much I tend to undereat and get curious ED behaviour - I lived for a week on 700 cals or less at some point. So this goal setting period, I followed a protein and veggie based eating plan, I tweaked it a bit to include some fruit and the occasional EVOO plus a few maintenance days and the odd glass of wine (i love cooking with wine, I know it's indulgent, but killer mushrooms glazed with wine are yum!) and it worked. I seldom went over 1300 - my recommended calorie intake and even then it was planned. Yohoooo!

I'll give myself 110% this time - I usually logged six out of seven days instead of 5 and when I did allow myself to slack it was say three days of no logging instead of 2. I remember Julie saying at some point that diet is 80% and exercise is 20% when it comes to losing weight. It is pretty true. Logging is great for a control freak, just like cooking.

My next goal will be:

a. Maintenance: Logging all my food for 5 of 7 days a week consistently for 9 of 12 weeks.

b. New: Exercise 2 times/week for 10 out of 12 weeks.

I know two times/week is pretty little, but for now I am aiming for baby steps: Last summer I would ride my bike an hour every day and then do some cardio, but the next two months will be terribly busy and I don't want to risk it and make empty promises. If I do better, good for me, and I will be sure to brag about it... :P

How does this sound? :) Any comments are more than welcome.

And btw, thanks everyone for encouraging me last week when I was in the emotional dumps... [I now have a plan for the killer next two months - thanks to many sleepless nights]

This is a goal I am going to stick with again, but like Sara, only 6 of 12 weeks. I will still aim for logging 5 days a week for those 6 weeks.

On the other hand, I hit my exercise goal 100% and only used one slack week due to shin splints.

I took my measurements last on December 19th and I am so dissappointed with the results. I gained 3.2 lbs and lost a net of .25in.

I've started the hundred pushups, two hundred situps and two hundred squats program... Hopefully those will start to give me a little shape back.

I don't know why I can't get my eating under control. You would think that someone who is running 20 miles a week could lose an ounce or two. I'm at a very low point right now... My self esteem is completely deflated it seems.

CONGRATULATIONS to the 18 who made it through the 12 weeks of goal awareness! Whether you give yourself a perfect score or a low score, it is probably a better score than you wouuld have earned in the same areas if you had not set any goals at all.

I do have one question regarding goal setting since I joined WJ's in the middle of the last goal period. Is it correct that the goals that we post during the week of 3/7-3/13 are to cover the 12 week period 3/14-6/5 and not 3/7-5/29? I hope it is as I interpreted it because that takes it right to the day before my marathon and that would be a great coincidence of timing that would be convenient and helpful for me.

Has anyone here ever written a "Family of Origin" paper about themselves for a Psych class? Any tips or advice? I have to do one this week and am having difficulty beginning. Anybody have a link to a good example of one?

I just received my invitation to join the group, and I am very happy to be here, especially at the start of a new goal cycle. I look forward to getting to know everyone here.

I've been on CC for just over 3 months...this time. I was briefly on the site back in 2006 and even made some modest progress before I allowed myself to be distracted. It didn't help that there were various stressors in my life then, but the real problem is that I am one of those people who seems to do things with diligent, perfect dedication, or not at all. That's what I'm here to change. Being a flawless paragon of healthy living forever is not going to happen, but instead of going to the other extreme, I just need to do most of what I need to be doing, most of the time. I'm sure everyone here understands that and I'm optimistic that this group will be a great tool for me in staying realistic and accountable.

My proposed goal is to exercise 5 hours per week, for 10 of 12 weeks. This isn't a completely new behaviour, as I have been doing this for about a month now, but I still consider it a bit precarious so I think it's a good starting goal. For exercise I would count time spent at the gym, biking, or going on long walks. I chose 10 of 12 weeks because I know that 5 hours a week is perfectly attainable if I am being honest with myself, even in the busiest week, and because if I have extra slack weeks I will probably use them. Any feedback on the goal would be very welcome.

Edited to add: My first name is rare enough that I'm not sure I'm comfortable posting it on an open forum, as it would be awkward for me if anyone from work ever found out that I was on here. But everyone can call me Pava (childhood nickname).

Maria GOOD JOB!!!! And you already know I'm a big believer in setting achievable goals. I tend to think that many wagon jumpers seem to think it's an under-achievement or somehow less valuable to set a goal that does not to them seem high. And while I do think everyone should aim high in the long run we need to be realistic about our steps to get there. Achieving a goal you know you can achieve not only shows rationale thought it also sets you up to feel motivated to lift that bar a little and climb that staircase up to the long term high goal. How's that for mixed metaphors? Your goals for next round look great.

Meg Great job on the exercise. There's a peleo diet on facebook, I'm going to try it for awhile to see if I can re kindle my interest in healthy foods. I took a hard knock on my self esteem last week when I gained 5 lbs on the dog training non-diet but I'm working it off and it feels good. You'll get there and with spring coming the cravings for light foods will return.

John The first week of the 12 weeks is the same week that you set your goal. So the goal setting and first week will be March 7 - 13, 2010. The last week of the 12 weeks and the goal evaluation week will be May 23 - 29, 2010.

This means that 12-week to 12-week there are no breaks. I do this mainly because the folks that do achieve their goals seem motivated enough to do back to back challenges, while the folks that do fall off the wagon during the 12-weeks tend to do so towards the end and already feel like they have a week (or more) break and use the goal evaluation week to ramp up some motivation to set goals.

Pava - WELCOME TO THE GROUP!!! Yes, we are all familiar with the dreaded all or nothing mentality. It can be a favourite self sabotage tool.

Looks like you are right into the swing of things with your goal. It meets all the criteria, you have given yourself some room to have a big slip up by limiting it to the 10 weeks and since it is based on hours across a week rather than a daily commitment you have lots of flexibility to achieve it in a given week. Looks great!

I chose not to set a 12 week goal last time, but I think this time I'll give it a go. Just a question about the maintenance vs. new goals: Maintenance pertains to a goal we've already met or a healthy habit we want to keep up with and new is a new behavior we want to establish, right?

Ok, I totally bombed out on the water drinking goal and was so disgusted with myself I think it caused me to drink even less water than I normally would have.

On the maintenance goal I'm 100%, nailed the 1250 minutes each month. I have to admit that half way through each month I had to kick my butt to get going and make the goal. To those of you who are setting goals for doing some many hours a day or a week, I recommend you multiply out what you want to accomplish for the month and go with that. If you find yourself not completing, you can always pick up the pass later in the month. Also it allows more flexibility for times when the everyday business of life interferes.

Merimeri well done on all that logging!

Msmeg, I'm having some trouble with my day to day eating as well! But wow, running 20 miles a week is awesome!

John, I'm glad you asked about the time frame. It wasn't actually clear to me last goal-setting round, but I asked halfway through the goal-setting week and realised I was already not meeting my goal. Now I know, the new goal period starts even before we physically post our goals!

So for this next round, for maintenance I'm going for 1500 exercise minutes per month.

For the primary goal I'm leaning toward something like no food after such and such time in the evening, or afternoon. I can use some help formulating this one. What I want to do is be sure I wake up hungry every morning and not go to bed feeling like a slug. For Lent (not religious but it sounded intriguing) I've given up computer time past 2:30 in the afternoon. Maybe I should just go for some kind of give up for my primary goal -- chocolate perhaps, or maybe a calorie limit on chocolate. Ideas??

Congrats to everyone who had success on their goal! Also, welcome to the new members!

I probably should have opted out during the last goal setting period since I didn't have a clear idea of what I really wanted (other than the maintenance goal). Though I didn't really make my fruit/veggies goal, it did help me think through things for the next time. I'm still going to focus on healthier eating, but more on eating whole grains and unprocessed things with a private goal of adding more veggies to the diet. This might translate into a goal of cooking at home and limiting eating out even more. That would make it measurable.

Right now, I am basically living on two types of homemade casseroles with brown rice, lentils and tomatoes as the main ingredients. These are not fancy, but they taste good and keep me from eating out. Also, I don't feel hungry because they are full of protein.

So during the week, I'm great, but on the weekends we eat out a lot more. I might try to start making a special meal at home on the weekends to curb that, but haven't decided how to make that happen yet.

For the maintenance goal, I give myself 90% since I got sick and didn't make it to the gym as much as I would have liked. However, I'm doing pretty well with that for the most part. It's nice because my husband goes with me and is a good source of encouragement. I'm seeing progress since my clothes are starting to fit better! I need to keep going with this since bathing suit season is only a few more months away and I'm a few sizes away from feeling comfortable putting a suit on :-)

I apologize for going AWOL for the week. I actually looked at the weekly assignment and could think of no answer as I was in a funk for keeping my health goals. Ugh. My only thought was that moving to music can sometimes motivate me to make some progress on keeping my goals.

Checking in: It was a miserable flop for keeping my exercise goals last time. I haven't kept track as well as I should, but I think I have met my exercise goals at about 50%. I didn't set the bar so high. However, the car accident I was in really set me back physically. Seat belts save lives, but the trade off can be extreme pain and internal bleeding. My husband didn't have such severe effects (probably because he was sleeping and not tensed on impact). It hurt to walk a few meters for a month after the accident. I hiked yesterday for the second time since Christmas. I only have little twinges of hurt in my chest when I am going up or down steep slopes. Whew. I'm glad I am getting back to normal.

I can claim 70% completion for drinking a liter of water daily. It's not too impressive, but I'll take it.

This week's assignment

I have been thinking about what keeps me on track. Those things are logging my food, posting to my own journal, and getting some amount of exercise in on a regular basis.

Last round's goals (Kyashiis - NEW: have exercised a minimum of 120 minutes each week and MAINTENANCE will be drinking a minimum of 1 liter of water per day for five of seven days each week.)

This 12-week round, I pledge to:

New: Log my calorie intake five days a week for 10 weeks of the goal period.

Maintenance: Exercise two times a week for a minimum of 30 minutes each time.

The maintenance goal is very modest. I will have to work hard to get the calories logged daily as I am starting into my busy time of the year at work.

I have been a member of this group for 8 months now. It is helping me remain cognisant of my goals even when I am not meeting them!!! It is motivating me to try again even when I feel like walking away from them.

Having said that, this goal period I give myself about 50% on my water goal, and 75% on my exercise goal. Those numbers increase to 75% on water, and 100% on exercise if I eliminate the first two to three weeks. Right around Christmas time, we had a family crisis and I wasn't focused on goals. The water is difficult for me. I just don't like drinking it!! I rarely feel thirsty and I have to make an effort to do it. When I manage to do it, I feel better, so it is worth it. This goal period I am going to try the water goal again, and I will replace the exercise goal with something else. Not exactly sure what yet.

Great job everyone. Thank you all for being here and cheering each other on.

Thank you Sara for the message on reaching 1 year and 8 months with Wagon Jumpers. I have been doing a lot of reflecting lately on my life, the last 10 years or so and what I want the next 5-10 years to look like. I am NOT where I want to be but I'm starting to realize I haven't really made much of an effort to change things. I am a great list maker and I have virtually made the same lists over the last 10 years with little to no progress on the items that directly effect a change in me personally. I think part of that reason is the all or nothing mentality that we talk about, my lists are very much "always do this" and "never do this again" which leaves little room for failure, even small ones. So keeping that in mind when I set my goals for this next round, which will take us just past my 30th birthday.

Goal Evaluation:

Raven21 - NEW: Exercising for 30 minutes daily for 9 of 12 weeks and MAINTENANCE: drinking at lease 3L of water daily for 9 of 12 weeks.

For my new goal I would have to say I'm probably at about 50% but that's probably being generous.

Maintenance - yup, hit this goal, it's not a hard one for me which is why I picked it as maintenance.

Proposed New Goals:

NEW - taking a cue from Laura (Figure), I am going to track exercise hours instead of x number of minutes per day or x number of days per week. I am setting the goal as 15 hrs/month and I think that is definitely doable.

Maintenance - Drink at least 3L of water daily.

I am also setting a personal goal (not officially part of the 12 weeks) of getting 8 hours of sleep/night on average for the week. I usually get 6-7 at the moment and I don't think it's enough.

Congrats to everyone that met and exceeded their goals.

Thank you to everyone in the group for being here to listen to my random thoughts and for sharing your thoughts as well.

Thanks Sara - Lots of my friends and fellow half marathon trainers on the DailyMile website have been through the same thing I am going through when training for their first half marathon. Many of them gained or maintained instead of losing.

I am burning lots of calories, so of course my appetite is crazy - much like when i was lifting weights. I'm just going to make a conscious effort to not eat when I'm bored, that should help a bit.

Sarah Yes, the maintenance goal should be a good habit that is already established. The purpose of this is so that when you are working on your new goal that you are seeing overall improvement in your commitment to your larger health and fitness goals rather than trading one good habit for another, and not building a whole package.

Laura I find many wagon jumpers have difficulty with "thou-shalt-not" goals. As soon as you set a "thou-shalt-not" specific goal like chocolate, or ice cream that is exactly when you crave it the most. I think the ones I have seen the most succcess with are stuff like not eating after a certain time (generally setting that time 2 hours before you typically go to bed is what I have read as recommended). Of if you do pick an item be sure to build in slack room so that you do have room for uncontrolable cravings.

Carrie Sounds like you are still feeling out a new goal. It's okay to stay with one maintenance goal as your declared goal and test drive others this round if you would like.

Kathy I can relate to having no answer to last weeks' thread, it was nice to be in the moderator position on that one, and I simply used people's posts to kick my own butt into action. Which seems to have worked since I've lost 4 of the 5 dog training pounds that I gained.

Your goals look great and really great job and congratulations to you for keeping this up even with your accident. There must be times when you just want to throw it in after an accident, but getting yourself well is hopefully making you feel better.

Laura I find I go off the rails in hectic times too, I don't know anyone who doesn't but what I like to think is more important is that you do return to your goals, which you obviously did. I'm not a big water fan either, I find that I like fizzy water (San Pelligrino, Perrier) better and I'm more able to make myself drink that.

Carrie I can relate to exactly what you are saying. I'm a spectacular list maker and I think it was shortly before I formed this group that I really had to take a hard look at why I had so many goals and was making so little progress on them. Health and Fitness is still the most challenging area of my life.

I started taking the "so what are you doing about it" approach in the areas of Home, Health & Fitness, Finance, Career and Entertainment.

In the last two years I have now found a beautiful new home (we're going to be starting a community garden in our back yard this year!), my finances are now at a point where I am at least not accumulating any more debt (more work to be done there!), for the first time as of March 15, 2010 I will have a full time permanent job with benefits and pension (that is such a huge relief), and I've been a better friend and more consistent in my friendships which has created more social opportunities for me. You all know the story of my ups and downs with health and fitness.

It's a long transition, and a transition in progress but I really find that the foundation, for me, has been built here in this group and I am truly grateful to each and everyone of you who has helped me with this.

Sara sent a reminder that it's been one month for Amy and I! And everyone, I'm so glad WJ was there during this month. February was hard on so many levels: it was dark, cold, snowy, icy, and I had a TON of work on top of some bad family-based emotional (expletive deleted). But WJ kept me on track. I only lost 2 pounds, but I bet without WJ, I may have fallen off the wagon completely. One constant mantra for me is every pound lost is a pound lost and therefore worthy of celebration. WJ has helped keep me on track.

John, what great timing! You really are an inspiration. Laura, I think there are 2 main groups of eaters out there. One group can stop eating at 6:00 pm and be fine for the rest of the evening. This group "eats like a king in the morning, a prince at lunch, and a pauper at dinner". I do not belong with this group. I tried that, and it was a disaster, I wound up waking up, starving at 2 in the morning, and eating a peanut butter sandwich in the middle of the night. The group I am in is the one that has to eat all day - I have 3 moderate meals and 3 healthy snacks (a fruit or veggies plus a small lo-fat dairy, or lean protein, or high fiber food). I have a late-night light snack every night (last night was homemade applesauce made simply from apples plus some raw oat bran - sounds weird but tastes great), and have now lost 52 pounds. Figure out which group you are in, and then make that commitment.

For my goals....Caroline, you had terrific advice for me near the end of the last thread. You pointed out that having a carrot, rather than a stick, gets you exercising. That is so true. I'd fallen into that trap of, "I HAVE to exercise" rather than "I WANT to exercise, because then I get ____". Here are my goals:

Maintenance: wake up at 5:30 am an average of 6 days a week (this is what helped me fit exercise back into my life. I was waking up at 5:30 every day, until February hit.) New: Exercise (either a 30 minute pilates or a 20-30 minute circuit) 6 days a week. For every 10 minutes of exercise, I'm going to "pay" myself a dollar, and at the end of the month I'll buy myself something silly that I want (a dvd, a hula hoop, etc).

Now I have a question - I had the logging of calories down PAT for seven months but have been sporatic this past month. Can I use logging 5 of 7 days for 9 of 12 weeks for a maintenance goal?

I'm thinking that I'd like to do 90 minutes of exercise a week for 9 of 12 weeks as a new goal. I've been playing the Wii quite a bit lately and love, love, love the new game we got "Just Dance". It is so much fun and I'm sweating by the time I finally give up making a fool of myself. It doesn't count the calories I burned like the Wii Fit Plus but I know I'm working harder than almost all of the Fit games.

This is the type of exercise I was looking for. I actually want to do it and enjoy it! I just have to be more consistant with how often I play. I am also looking forward to nicer weather so that I can download audio books and take the dogs for walks.

Looks like I did ok on exercise, I managed to eek out two hours for all but one of the weeks except for the last two, during which I far exceeded two hours, and hereafter will not have a problem with.

The calories... I will have to estimate about 30%, simply because I failed to log much of the time. I've gotten back to logging the past two weeks, but prior to that, even though I may have been on goal, I have no way of knowing because I did not log most of the time, sometimes yes, and was on goal, but I can't credit myself because I have no supporting documentation.

OVERALL: I will take a 65% success on goals.

I am still in process of setting my goals for next round. Things have changed considerably, so I believe the goals will be altogether different as well. I'll be getting back with that soon.